PhotoCred: MMA Fighting
Julius Anglickas feeling the ‘love and pride’ from Lithuania ahead of Bellator 268 title fight
Julius Anglickas hopes to bring back a title to his native Lithuania with a big upset victory this Saturday night at Bellator 268.
In the main event, Anglickas will square off against Vadim Nemkov where he not only has the chance to become a champion but advance to the finals of the Bellator light heavyweight tournament.
“When I first started fighting, people did not know about me and that’s fine,” Anglickas told My MMA News. “There was no spotlight, there was no social media about it. But now, it’s like okay, you’re doing Contender Series, you’re doing Bellator – doing it for a title. You get a lot of messages, you get a lot of support, there were some trolls here and there but they don’t matter. And you see all the love and the pride that they feel.”
Directly before Julius Anglickas went to Bellator, he made a successful appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series with a third-round reak naked choke submission over Karl Reed. However, it wouldn’t be enough to earn the Lithuanian a contract.
Now, he has the opportunity to take MMA in his country to new heights.
“It’s like, ‘Julius… he’s going out here. He’s representing. Let’s stand behind him and let’s cheer him on, let’s keep it going,'” Anglickas said. “So that definitely motivates me, it gives me energy to keep it going and it makes you feel awesome. It’s like wow, people look up to you. And if people look up to you, you definitely want to do good, you definitely want to represent the company well and you want to represent the country well. So you definitely don’t want to act like a knucklehead or do something [bad]. You have to do it right.
